Supreme Court Clarifies Voter List Removal Does Not Cancel Citizenship

The Supreme Court has made important observations regarding the removal of names from electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process. The court clarified that losing voting rights due to deletion from the voter list does not automatically mean that a person’s citizenship has been revoked.

The court further stated that the Election Commission cannot be considered the final constitutional authority for determining citizenship status. While hearing petitions filed by people who lost their names during the Bengal SIR exercise, the Supreme Court directed that applications regarding the citizenship status of such individuals should be submitted to the Centre by the Election Commission.